Chapter 258 - The Broken Balance and the Gathering Storm
Su Bai listened attentively.
Yue Cangyu did not rush through the explanation, but neither did he waste words.
More than eight months had passed since Su Bai entered the Fallen-Star Sanctuary, and much of what happened outside could not be explained with a few sentences.
Even so, the longer Su Bai listened, the less surprised he became.
In the end, most of it came down to politics.
More precisely, it came down to what happened when the balance between factions changed too quickly.
"The first month after the disciples returned was peaceful," Yue Cangyu said. "At least, that was how it appeared."
Su Bai understood what he meant.
The people who had escaped the Sanctuary had returned with far more than ordinary expedition gains.
Those who had travelled with Su Bai had accumulated enough treasure that even their storage rings had struggled to contain everything.
For the greater sects, those gains were substantial.
For several smaller factions, they were enough to change their future.
A sect that once struggled to gather enough resources for a handful of promising disciples could suddenly afford to nurture an entire generation.
Ancient records could strengthen its alchemy hall or formation inheritance, while the physical treasures could support its elders and improve its defenses.
The gains were not merely valuable. They created the possibility of rising.
Su Bai looked at Yue Cangyu.
"So the balance changed."
Yue Cangyu nodded.
"That was the beginning."
For years, the factions throughout the region had existed within an arrangement everyone understood.
Stronger sects knew which weaker powers they could pressure without forcing a larger response. Smaller factions understood how much territory and influence they could claim without attracting dangerous attention. Old clans, declining sects, and neutral powers had all learned where they stood.
The Fallen-Star Sanctuary disturbed that balance.
Several smaller factions suddenly possessed resources that might allow them to climb much higher than before.
Others returned with very little.
Some had sent disciples into the Sanctuary and received nothing except news that those disciples would never return.
For the first month, no one acted openly.
Yue Cangyu called it the silence before the storm.
Everyone had been calculating.
They wanted to know exactly who had returned, how much each faction had gained, which relationships had formed inside the Sanctuary, and whether those gains could truly be converted into strength.
The peace ended once those questions began receiving answers.
"The first conflicts were small," Yue Cangyu said. "So small that everyone could still pretend they had nothing to do with the Sanctuary."
A disciple disappeared while traveling. A caravan belonging to one of the newly prosperous factions was attacked. An elder carrying resources was ambushed outside his own territory.
At first, those incidents were blamed on old grudges, independent cultivators, or ordinary disputes.
The excuses stopped being convincing when the same factions were repeatedly targeted.
Many of those responsible belonged to sects that had gained nothing from the expedition.
The resentment was strongest among factions whose disciples had died inside.
Not all of them reacted that way.
Most understood that entering the Fallen-Star Sanctuary had always carried the possibility of death.
The problem came from those who could not accept watching weaker factions prosper while their own disciples had returned as names on memorial tablets.
Su Bai sighed softly.
Greed alone was already dangerous. Greed mixed with grief and wounded pride was much worse.
"Some wanted the treasures," Yue Cangyu continued. "Others cared less about what those sects possessed now than what they might become later."
Su Bai nodded.
A powerful sect did not necessarily fear a weaker neighbor in the present.
It feared what that neighbor could become after ten years of absorbing ancient knowledge and spending resources that should have taken generations to accumulate.
If several elders advanced, if the younger generation grew stronger, and if their formations improved, a faction that had once been irrelevant could suddenly begin competing for territory and influence.
The Sanctuary gains had changed possibilities, and possibilities were enough to make old powers nervous.
The first serious retaliation followed soon afterward.
Once blood was spilled, the conflict stopped being about treasure alone.
Old grudges resurfaced. Territorial disputes returned. Families demanded revenge for dead cultivators.
Factions that had originally wanted no part in the Sanctuary dispute began being dragged into conflicts that had existed long before the expedition.
The stronger sects might still have suppressed the smaller ones if those factions had remained isolated.
They did not.
Many of the disciples who had survived together had formed the Sworn Kin Covenant with Su Bai.
Others had fought beside one another long enough that the relationships formed inside the Sanctuary did not simply disappear when they returned home.
When one faction was attacked, the others began helping.
Some sent warnings before ambushes could happen. Others provided escorts, medicine, refuge, or reinforcements when necessary.
What had begun as several unrelated smaller sects gradually became a loose alliance held together by shared danger and mutual benefit.
Yue Cangyu looked at Su Bai.
"I doubt you expected your oath to affect the region this much."
Su Bai considered the question.
"We survived together. I wanted that bond to mean something even after we left the Sanctuary."
Yue Cangyu looked at him for a moment before nodding.
"It seems they felt the same way."
Su Bai could hear the faint amusement in Yue Cangyu’s voice.
Unfortunately, it had worked well enough to create a new political problem.
A smaller sect becoming richer was manageable.
Several smaller sects becoming richer while protecting one another was far more threatening to anyone who had grown comfortable with the old balance.
The fighting expanded.
Some factions lost territory and influence while others rose rapidly enough to alarm their neighbors.
Several old arrangements collapsed entirely.
Within a few months, what began as scattered attacks had become regional conflict.
Yue Cangyu’s expression gradually became more serious.
"Not every faction that gained nothing joined the fighting. Most stayed out of it, and some tried to restrain their own people."
Su Bai nodded.
That was more believable than an entire region suddenly becoming irrational.
"A sect does not always move with one mind," Yue Cangyu continued. "Several elders had lost disciples inside the Sanctuary. Some obeyed their Sect Masters and remained quiet. Others did not."
Those elders had their own disciples, families, subordinate forces, and personal connections.
They did not need permission from the entire sect to arrange an ambush or quietly support another faction.
Some acted out of grief.
Others acted because they could not tolerate the idea of a formerly weaker sect rising above them.
That alone made the conflict difficult to contain.
What happened afterward made it far worse.
Yue Cangyu’s voice lowered slightly.
"At some point, information began reaching the demonic factions."
Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.
The information was not vague rumor.
The demonic factions learned which sects had gained the most from the Sanctuary, which factions were rising fastest, which groups had already been weakened by the fighting, and where some of their people would be moving.
That degree of detail meant someone had been feeding them information from inside the righteous factions.
Some were likely demonic cultivators who had infiltrated long ago.
Others were almost certainly righteous cultivators who decided that weakening a rival mattered more than the consequences of helping the demonic side.
Su Bai frowned.
"That was reckless."
Yue Cangyu shook his head slightly.
"Some of them probably believed they could control the consequences."
Su Bai had nothing good to say about that.
People who believed they could invite a predator into another person’s house and somehow convince it to leave afterward usually deserved what followed.
Unfortunately, everyone around them tended to suffer first.
Once the demonic factions learned how much wealth and ancient knowledge had come out of the Sanctuary, they could no longer ignore the situation.
If the benefiting righteous sects were given enough time to absorb those gains, the overall strength of the righteous side could rise considerably.
That gave the demonic factions a reasonable strategic excuse to interfere.
Yue Cangyu paused.
"That was the argument their elders used."
Su Bai looked at him.
"And the real reason?"
"Most of them wanted the treasures."
Su Bai nodded immediately.
A faint smile appeared on Yue Cangyu’s face before disappearing.
The demonic factions entering openly marked the true beginning of the larger chaos.
The scattered conflicts between righteous sects became secondary once demonic cultivators began attacking weakened factions and exploiting the distrust already spreading through the region.
Hidden infiltrators revealed themselves at critical moments.
Some defensive formations failed because information had been leaked beforehand.
Cultivators disappeared while traveling through routes that had once been considered safe.
By that point, Radiant Sky Sect and the other major powers could no longer treat the conflict as someone else’s problem.
"That was why your master returned," Yue Cangyu said.
Su Bai’s attention sharpened.
"Master became involved because of the demonic factions?"
Yue Cangyu nodded.
"By then, too many righteous cultivators had already died."
Lu Canghai was not the only powerful cultivator who moved.
Several factions that normally preferred neutrality also entered the conflict once the demonic side became too aggressive.
The Tang Clan were among them.
They had little reason to involve themselves while the matter remained a dispute between sects over gains and influence.
Once the fighting began threatening territories, trade routes, disciples, and allied powers, neutrality offered far less protection.
Their involvement helped stabilize the situation.
Neither side gained enough of an advantage to crush the other without suffering unacceptable losses.
The regional war eventually settled into a dangerous standstill.
That remained the situation until roughly a month ago.
Yue Cangyu’s expression changed.
"The boundary around the Fallen-Star Sanctuary began thinning."
Su Bai immediately understood why everything shifted again.
The treasures brought out by the first group had already been enough to disturb the entire region.
Everyone also knew those disciples had explored only part of the Sanctuary.
If the ancient region itself was about to reopen completely, no one knew what remained deeper inside.
The fighting did not end.
Instead, both sides became cautious.
No faction wanted to exhaust its strongest cultivators elsewhere while an enemy secured the Sanctuary.
At the same time, no one trusted the opposing side enough to withdraw completely.
The major powers began watching the region and waiting for the moment the boundary finally changed.
Su Bai remained silent for several breaths.
One part still bothered him.
"If everyone was watching the Sanctuary, how did thousands of demonic cultivators gather outside without being stopped?"
Yue Cangyu’s expression hardened.
"That is what I still intend to find out."
An army of that size should not have reached the area unnoticed.
Even if the demonic cultivators traveled in smaller groups and gathered only near the end, Yue Cangyu should have detected enough movement to become suspicious.
He had been watching the Sanctuary precisely because of the weakening boundary.
Yet by the time he realized something was wrong, the demonic force had already reached the region and made its preparations.
"They did not use any route I was watching," Yue Cangyu said. "There are old passages and damaged transportation formations throughout these lands, so they may have found something that has remained hidden for generations."
His gaze became colder.
"Someone may also have shown them the way."
Su Bai understood.
Another traitor was possible, although neither of them had enough evidence to decide that yet.
Yue Cangyu clearly had no intention of accusing anyone before he knew more.
That was sensible.
The righteous side already had enough suspicion poisoning it.
The presence of the Void-Shattering demonic cultivator made the purpose of the gathering obvious enough.
The demonic factions had expected the Sanctuary to reopen and wanted enough force present to control whatever emerged.
A Void-Shattering cultivator was there because thousands of weaker cultivators alone could not stop another great power from interfering.
Unfortunately for them, Yue Cangyu had remained nearby.
Even more unfortunately, the person to come out had been Su Bai.
Yue Cangyu finally stopped speaking.
Su Bai remained silent for a long time.
More than eight months inside the Fallen-Star Sanctuary had changed far more than he expected.
He had imagined returning to Clear Cloud Peak.
He had imagined seeing his master again, checking on Liu Meng and the others, and spending some time cultivating without another ancient disaster appearing in front of him.
Instead, he had returned directly into a regional war.
Su Bai slowly sighed.
Apparently, asking for a peaceful life had become increasingly unrealistic.